The timeline is kind of hazy, apparently Don Diego has been assembling his squad step by step, bringing in his boys slowly, judging the effectiveness of Aguero, the fitness of Messi or the dedication of a Tevez. He made low-key Mascherano his captain, dropped out of form Cambiasso, and has made it well known that players like Veron and Riquelme were in his plans. All along though, like Basile and Pekerman before him, Maradona has had do deal with the whispers of the anti-Riquelme camp. “He doesn't track back, he has no pace, he's a left-over from a different time, a luxury player”; all of the same criticisms that have been bubbling under the surface for years and in a sense the focal point for this Argentinean generations' lack of success on the world stage.
With that in mind, and knowing that Riquelme had been left out of a recent friendly against France, Diego was asked by reporters if he still featured Roman in his plans. Sure, he responded, but he wanted a certain level of commitment from all of his players. He wanted players who gave their all for the shirt.
Now, that doesn't seem like an inflammatory enough public statement to set off the Boca primadonna to me, but there had to be some other context, a reference to some private spat that had been seething in the background, that led Riquelme to not only quit, but hit the revered Diego on the way out, "We don't think the same way. We don't share the same codes of ethics. While he is the coach of the national team, we can't work together."
I drew this in and all along I kept thinking about his past scrapes. First with management in Barcelona, then with Manuel Pellegrini at Villareal. It was pattern of behavior, two separate standards for some players and Riquelme, a petulance that had been rewarded at club level by Boca Juniors, by Basile and Pekerman internationally, but was unacceptable at a big-time European club like FC Barcelona.
His talent is still drawing admirers; from Newcastle United and Benfica this week alone. Hell, I admire the guy as a player, there is nothing to me more important in the game than a player that sees the field in its entirety, the ebb and flow of a group of players, and his passing is a sheer joy to watch, but when he under-performs and doesn't get his way, Riquelme can be a cancer that spreads through the entirety of a club. Is it any wonder that Villareal played better without Roman? Can Argentina afford to again hand the keys to their Ferrari to this temperamental and flawed genius? As much as it pains me to say, but modern clubs cannot have one axis from which everything runs, one point of attack and an easy target to defend.
I have to say though, that it's getting to be a habit for me that the players I admire, like Bobo Vieri, or Antonio Cassano, and even Francesco Totti, are just wack-jobs. Maybe that says something about me.
living in the past Mark, 6th ovlearl??? who cares ..By the way if you read his book and not believed what you read elsewhere, you would know he didn't lie about that. Keegan, Shearer, which messiah comes next?
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